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CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.Ridiculous grade given to Brady, and he's off on a thing or two, but it's generally a pretty solid take. As for the head motion, I was remembering that as Connolly in another thread for some reason, but I saw the same thing. It's a definite tip off.
Pretty spot on; this was a game were no unit was free of blame.
How does he give the running backs a 4 out of 5 grade when we could barely run the ball?
I agree with Bedard especially on the play calling. I think Gronk being banged up is being overstated and it's simply Josh not using him enough. Play action on that final drive with the lead or on the 3 and 1 from the 6 would have been set up nice with a high rate of success. Josh is basically turning the player who just had the best season ever for a TE into Daniel Graham. Nothing wrong with Graham here in his prime but they didn't pay him 9M/year because he wasn't worth it. Turning Gronk into just another O-Lineman is stupid.
Last year, Gronk played 16 games. He had 90 catches and averaged 14.7 yards a pop. This year, Gronk has played 6 games, clearly injured. He has 29 catches (on pace for 77) and is averaging 12.3 yards a pop.
So, Gronk is off of last year's record pace, but he's still putting up excellent receiving numbers, and he's already just 9 receptions shy of Graham's career high. The notion that Gronk is somehow being turned into Graham is simply without merit.
I said turning him into Graham not that he become Graham. More of a fear than a current reality. I will admit I hadn't looked at his current stats and they do look better than the perception I had of his usage. However another way to slice those numbers is:
1327 yards last year and is on pace for 948 yards this year which is a 29% reduction. He had 17 TDs, 18 if you include the run which really was intended as a pass, and is currently on pace for 8 which is 53% off his pass total.
Yes it's true the running game has absorbed some of that production but yet Welkers numbers are slightly up on receiving minus TDs and Lloyd's production is ahead of what Branch was putting up last year and all this while minus Hernandez for a few games and Edelman for more than that. His targets are down while Welker and Lloyd vs Branch of last year are up.
I still think Josh needs to use him more.